Genesis Featured Page Extras

1. 

   Genesis Featured Page Extras: the new featured page extras widget options (Click here for larger version of screenshot)

2. 

   Genesis Featured Page Extras: the plugin in action on a live site - with a HTML5 child theme... (Click here for larger version of screenshot)

3. 

   Genesis Featured Page Extras: the plugin in action on a live site - with a XHTML child theme - here without a featured image... (Click here for larger version of screenshot)

4. 

   Genesis Featured Page Extras: plugin's help tab. (Click here for larger version of screenshot)

Does this plugin replace the built-in “Featured Page” widget or third-party widgets?

NO! It is fully optional and can be used side by side with original or other third-party widgets.

Why another “Featured” (page) widget for Genesis?

I needed more options for that page widget for myself for a long time, so I finally build/ forked it. If you’re happy with the built-in widget or third-party widgets then it’s absolutely fine to use them instead! 🙂

How does the styling work?

Same as before using this plugin. The widget from this plugin uses the same CSS classes as the original Genesis widget(s). The plugin does NOT touch any child theme styles. Still, it can be neccessary to style some of the additionally included selectors, for example if you’re using one of the optional features.

This plugin does NOT enqueue any frontend or backend styles. It only provides a few additional CSS selectors in a few circumstances.

Notes for Widget & Page Title Links

• Widget title by default has no link to it, you can use the permalink of your selected page or your own URL, including the link target
• Page title by default is linked to its permalink (of selected page)
• Both titles can also be hidden if desired

Notes for *More* Link

The More link defaults to the used page’s permalink — or use your own URL, with optional link target setting

Note: link target setting is not available for the default page permalink as it cannot be tweaked in this kind of widget environment (not targetable)

Note on Character Limits

Character limits for Page Title and Content Teaser: only integer values are allowed, plus: cutoff is always after the full word not within it!

Could I disable this plugin’s Shortcode support for widgets?

Of course, it’s possible! Just add the following constant to your child theme’s functions.php file or to a functionality plugin:

/** Genesis Featured Page Extras: Remove Widgets Shortcode Support */
add_filter( 'gfpe_filter_widget_shortcodes', '__return_false' );

Some webmasters could need this for security reasons regarding their stuff members or for whatever other reasons… :).

Note: Other plugins could still (independently from my plugin) enable shortcode support within (text) widgets or anywhere else.

Final note: I DON’T recommend to add customization code snippets to your child theme’s functions.php file! Please use a functionality plugin or an MU-plugin instead! This way you can also use this better for Multisite environments. In general you are not abusing the functions.php for plugin-specific stuff and you are then also more independent from child theme changes etc. If you don’t know how to create such a plugin yourself just use one of my recommended ‘Code Snippets’ plugins. Read & bookmark these Sites:

• “What is a functionality plugin and how to create one?” – blog post by WPCandy
• “Creating a custom functions plugin for end users” – blog post by Justin Tadlock
• DON’T hack your functions.php file: Resource One – Resource Two (both by Thomas Griffin Media)
• “Code Snippets” plugin by Shea Bunge – also network wide!
• “Code With WP Code Snippets” plugin by Thomas Griffin – Note: Plugin currently in development at GitHub.
• “Toolbox Modules” plugin by Sergej Müller – see also his plugin instructions.

All the custom & branding stuff codes above can also be found as a Gist on GitHub: https://gist.github.com/deckerweb/8511594 (you can also add your questions/ feedback there 🙂

How can I use the advantages of this plugin for multilingual sites?

(1) In general: You may use it for “global” widgets.

(2) Usage with the “WPML” plugin:
Widgets can be translated with their “String Translation” component – this is much easier than adding complex footer credits logic for a lot of languages to your functions.php…

You can now also place the “Language Switcher Widget” at the bottom of your site :).

You can use the awesome “Widget Logic” plugin (or similar ones) and add additional paramaters, mostly conditional stuff like is_home() in conjunction with is_language( 'de' ) etc. This way widget usage on a per-language basis is possible. Or you place in the WPML language codes like ICL_LANGUAGE_CODE == 'de' for German language. Fore more info on that see their blog post: http://wpml.org/2011/03/howto-display-different-widgets-per-language/

With the following language detection code you are now able to make conditional statements, in the same way other WordPress conditional functions work, like is_single(), is_home() etc.:

/**
 * WPML: Conditional Switching Languages
 *
 * @author David Decker - DECKERWEB
 * @link   http://twitter.com/deckerweb
 *
 * @global mixed $sitepress
 */
function is_language( $current_lang ) {

    global $sitepress;

    if ( $current_lang == $sitepress->get_current_language() ) {
        return true;
    }
}

Note: Be careful with the function name ‘is_language’ – this only works if there’s no other function in your install with that name! If it’s already taken (very rare case though), then just add a prefix like my_custom_is_language().

–> You now can use conditionals like that:

if ( is_language( 'de' ) ) {
    // do something for German language...
} elseif ( is_language( 'es' ) ) {
    // do something for Spanish language...
}

1.2.0 (2014-02-21)

• NEW: Added more built-in image sizes to the image size selection field (“medium”, “large”, “full”) – this could come in handy if the full size (original image size) is needed somewhere (for wider slider areas etc.).
• NEW: Added new option to optinally disable the link for the featured image.
• NEW: If using a custom more link you can now add an additional CSS class to the <a> HTML tag (additional to the default more-link).
• NEW: Added basic widget display options, especially handy to hide the widget output from non-logged in users and such…
• UPDATE: Improved gracefully dying of (active) plugin if no Genesis active.
• UPDATE: Some code improvements, plus: widget options form in admin now as extra file include to save on performance.
• UPDATE: Updated German translations and also the .pot file for all translators.

1.1.1 (2014-02-02)

• UPDATE: Fixed loading of admin JavaScript only on the Widgets admin page.

1.1.0 (2014-01-27)

• NEW: Allow Widget Title also to be linked to the selected page’s permalink.
• NEW: Allow for the page title to be not linked.
• UPDATE: Updated & improved media uploader script to pass unique widget instance – props to Nicholas Diego for pointing out!
• UPDATE: Minor code and readme adjustments :).
• UPDATE: Updated German translations and also the .pot file for all translators.

1.0.0 (2014-01-20)

• Initial release